


Scaling Back

by AnchoredTether



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, During Canon, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fish Puns, Fluff and Humor, Gen, I'm so glad that's a tag, Interspecies Awkwardness, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Mer!Lance, Merman Lance, Pidge finds out first, Secrets, Team Bonding, Team as Family, and it's great, except Lance is hiding that he's actually a merman, it surprisingly fixes a lot of plot holes, so many fish puns, what if everything was the same
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-23 11:49:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23110918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnchoredTether/pseuds/AnchoredTether
Summary: Lance thought hiding the fact that he was a merman while on land was hard, but he quickly discovers that hiding his species while in space is a never-ending slew of anxiety-inducing close calls.He reckoned Pidge would be the first to figure out his secret since she was the smartest on the team, so it was only a matter of time... but he could never imagine she would find out like this.
Relationships: Lance/Pidge | Katie Holt
Comments: 42
Kudos: 136





	1. One Secret Revealed

_We were an elusive and secretive species._

_It was the only way we could survive undetected for so long._ _I had lots of friends but never a best friend. It was too dangerous to get too close to anyone for fear of them finding us out. It looked as if I was liked by everyone as a child but I grew up feeling so alone. The only confidants in my life were members of my family and the sharks and dolphins who cared to listen. And then there was Flavio, the annoying dolphin who would always spend time with me but turned tail halfway through any serious conversations. He's so inconsiderate of my feelings._

 _I_ _t wasn't until middle school when my family moved to the states did I meet Hunk. He quickly latched on to me like a starfish and refused to let me do anything without him. I thought I could open up to him and share everything, but my mother prohibited it. We couldn't trust any humans with our secret._

_It was simply too dangerous._

_Despite being oblivious to what I really am, Hunk is the greatest friend I could ask for and it hurt knowing I wasn't being completely honest with him. I wanted to tell him but I couldn't go against my mother or risk my family of being discovered. There was no telling what would happen to us if humankind found out. And... as much as I wanted to trust that Hunk would take something like this seriously, he also has a tendency to get excited and blab about things. Like my surprise thirteenth birthday party which... wasn't a surprise. Thanks, Hunk. Thirteen was also when I found out I got into the Garrison, so that part was actually a surprise. Rachel makes fun of me wanting to be in the sky when I belong in the water, and I do admit it's kinda weird. But I've always dreamed of flying and being among the stars. The stars were something I loved ever since I was a child. Something about them drew me in like the tide._

_Never could I have ever imagined that I would find a giant robotic cat and fly it into space. And yet here I am... with my team, my rival, and my long lost hero who suddenly crashed from an alien spaceship. Yeah, everything's really weird and doesn't make any sense. And this is coming from a guy who can turn his lower half into a giant fishtail. I'm inwardly freaking out more than Hunk and that's saying something._

_Mainly because there's no water in space. And I can only be out of the water for so long. Space is so uncertain as it is that having to hide what I am on top of it all feels like a constant panic attack I can never escape unless I fess up to the team. There have been a few close calls and I'm mostly glad no one caught on to anything when I had to go into the cyropod... apparently it doesn't tell what species is in the healing machine but Coran seemed rather skeptical._

"You humans sure need a lot of water to rehydrate," Coran had started as they headed towards the dining hall.

"Y-yeah, well..." Lance laughed nervously. "You know the human body is seventy percent water!"  
  
"Fascinating," he said while stroking his mustache. Lance suddenly had to wonder if alteans somehow... _weren't_... seventy percent water. He wasn't sure if thinking about it was intriguing or disturbing. Coran broke his train of thought. "Does that mean you human paladins all need to regularly take more baths?"

Lance tried not to choke. "Nooo, we just... have to make sure we're drinking plenty!" _He_ certainly needed to submerge more than his teammates, but he wasn't about to divulge that tidbit with Coran. "Do we by chance have anything... _other_ than foodgoo in the Castle?" The alteans insisted he eat something after coming out of the cyropod but foodgoo sounded like the least appealing thing right now. _What I would not do for a slice of pizza..._

"I'm afraid not," Coran said. "But we can certainly stop at other planets and stock up on some inventory for the kitchen."

He sighed. "I doubt they have cheese on other planets..."

Lance listened to his teammates explain everything that had happened while he endured the bland taste of the electric green foodgoo. He kept sneaking portions to the altean mice that hung out on the table near him and tried to ignore the persistent itch in his thighs. He was lucky the cryopod didn't force him to transform but he reckoned it was making his lack of scales more noticeable than usual since he had to heal from some rough injuries. Everything was more painful and took more time to recover in his land form. He wished for nothing more right now than to soak in a tub for an hour. He would eat all the disgusting foodgoo if it meant he could sit in some water. Perhaps he should convince Coran he was right and humans needed regular baths to stay hydrated.

"So, what's the plan now?" he asked, mostly caught up.

"We have to get back to the Balmera and save Shay and her people," Hunk said.

"Wow! You are really hung up on this lady." As he listened to all the paladins he only heard Hunk mention Shay and he mentioned her multiple times.

"No, it's not like that. Look, guys, when you see how Zarkon has treated these people and destroyed their home, they've been under his thumb for so long they don't even know what it is to be free. It's up to us to set this right. This is what being a Paladin of Voltron is all about. It's time to man up."

Lance raised an eyebrow at Hunk and noticed that Pidge visibly tensed up and frowned.

"Then let's get moving," Shiro announced. "Time to go defend the universe."

The team began to leave the dining hall, and Lance sighed as he slowly got up to join them. Pidge, however, was still near the table with him, hesitant. "Wait," he started, getting everyone to turn around and look at him expectantly. 

"I have something to say first. I need to come clean and... I'm afraid this may change the way you all think about me. Just so there are no secrets between us anymore... I can't 'man up'... I'm a girl."

Lance's stomach dropped as soon as Pidge mentioned "coming clean" and "no secrets between us" but he couldn't believe what he was hearing. _Pidge, a girl?_ How long did he believe Pidge was a guy? Well over a year now? How could someone so easily hide such a big secret from the secret-hiding master?

Pidge started rambling nervously. "I-I mean, I _can_ 'man up' because that's just a figure of speech. I don't have to actually be a man to 'man up.' I just have to be tough. But what I'm saying-"

"Huh—Eh—WHAA—?!" Lance cut in, his surprise no longer able to be contained, and Pidge flinched in embarrassment. "You're a girl!? HOW!?"

"I've known for some time," Allura admitted. "But I'm glad you've shared it with everyone."

"Yeah, I figured," Hunk said.

"Oh, yeah, me too," Keith added.

"Wait, w-we were supposed to think you were a boy?" Coran asked with a dubious smile.

Shiro looked at her with a fond smile. "Pidge, owning who you are is going to make you a better Paladin."

Pidge took a deep sigh of relief. "It's good to get that off my chest. Now, let's launch this Castleship!"

The team then left but Lance was still frozen in disbelief, his mind running a mile a minute. He shook his head to try and clear it. "Wait, what? Pidge is a girl and the Castle is a _ship?"_ He rubbed the back of his head, his expression confused. "How long have I been out?"

Part of him thought that perhaps now was the best time to come clean to his team as well, but apparently everyone in space already knew Pidge was a girl except for him. Now he wondered in a panic if everyone secretly knew about _his_ secret and no one decided to bring it up to save him the awkward confrontation. But what if Pidge brought up she was a girl _now_ as a way to make it more comfortable for Lance to own up that he was a merman because they all knew because of his time in the cyropod and Lance totally missed the obvious cue?? 

_Calm down, these are totally unrelated,_ he told himself. He still couldn't believe he failed to notice Pidge was a girl though... _even Keith knew?_ That wounded him. There were few things Lance prided himself on ( _okay there's a lot of things, but only a few I take seriously)_ and his ability to be observant was one of them. He knew Hunk had read her diary so he probably found out that way. Keith he could only imagine found out because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time like when Pidge was getting out of the showers or something... Allura probably knew because she _was_ a girl and Shiro was smart and he probably figured it out the hard way by pure deduction. He made a mental note to leave no evidence for Hunk to find, avoid Keith, and to be super cautious around Shiro (he was dangerous).

Coran was already skeptical and Lance was certain the cyropods would read differently if one of his teammates used it. So now he also had to make sure that none of his friends ever got hurt - which he was already planning to do as the team's sharpshooter, but the stakes were raised and he knew the increased dangers. But Shiro's words kept flowing in and out of his head in an echo, _"Owning who you are is going to make you a better Paladin..."_

The real question, however, was whether or not his friends would accept him as he was.

He debated the possibility that revealing himself would be easier in space. They all met Allura and Coran and seemed to handle the idea of an alien species just fine. Not even Hunk was freaking out about it and Lance saw that as a hopeful sign. But the horror stories from his parents and grandparents caused him to hesitate. Even if it would be easier out in space, there was no telling what would happen once they got back to Earth - _if_ they ever got back to Earth - or whether all of the paladins would be able to keep his secret. There were several variables and Lance was too nervous to commit with all the numerous possibilities. He needed everyone to accept him and agree to keep his secret if he was going to reveal himself, and he couldn't say with confidence that everyone would do just that. It ached in his chest when he accepted this conclusion but it was the harsh reality he had to deal with for years in order to stay safe and protect his kind. There were too many times for him to count where he warred with his logic and his heart on telling Hunk the truth. His constant inner struggle suddenly became a life crisis now that he was a _defender of the universe_ and would have to face a variety of unknown enemies, creatures, foods, and environments. Everything became a terrifying unknown and Lance had a feeling his identity being revealed was inevitable and would happen at the most inconvenient time and place possible.

It wasn't until after they saved the Balmera and Shay's people did Lance finally have a chance to try and even think about how he would go about satisfying his itch and temporarily transforming. He knew about the bathtubs in the communal restrooms and had used them before, but he was too scared to risk shifting. But if Pidge could somehow get away with pretending to be a boy and still taking showers or baths, then maybe Lance would be fine. 

And then he remembered how everyone already knew Pidge was a girl. Except for him. He was still feeling salty about that.

He had way too much anxiety buzzing in his veins and he needed to submerge before he transformed against his will out of necessity. He was lucky enough to remain in his land form during his time in the cyropod but if he went too long without being in the water or got too heavily injured or became terribly sick he would instinctively change. He added "don't get injured" and "don't get sick" to his never-ending mental list of things to avoid while in space. 

Lance waited until it was the middle of the night for good measure. He set an alarm on his watch and snuck out to the restroom at 3AM, filling up the tub with lukewarm water and hoping that no one would hear it running. He enjoyed hot water in his land form but his scales were thick and more accustomed to the temperature of the ocean. The baths were private but as far as he could tell there were no locks on the doors to the individual rooms unless it was some weird Altean technology he had yet to figure out - which is why he decided to do this in the dead of night to avoid any accidental discoveries. 

Luckily the tubs were _huge -_ probably to accommodate larger alien species, _which is basically what I am to my teammates,_ he thought. He couldn't wait for the massive tub to fill so he went ahead and stripped his nightwear and sat in the water as the faucet continued to run. The water didn't feel good against his legs, it felt like pinpricks reminding him he was in the wrong form. Usually he had a much stronger tolerance to water when he had legs but it had been too long since he shifted that his body was aching to return to its more natural form. 

The transformation washed over him like an undertow sucking him out into the ocean, eager to have her child back into her embrace. Changing from his land form to his water form was oddly never painful - it was only when he needed legs did it hurt. It simply felt like a big, long stretch when he got his tail back, and comfort flooded him to see his familiar range of iridescent blue and red scales. He sunk into the water with an exhausted yet content sigh. He breathed in the water and feeling it pass against his gills felt like he was finally breathing fresh air for the first time in weeks. In the midst of his meditative breathing, he nearly forgot about the faucet but flicked his fin up to slap it off. The water was finally still and he was happy to find that the tub was large enough for his long tail to be curled up comfortably. Of course he would have preferred a bigger space so he could actually _swim_ but submerging under the surface was more than he could ask for at this point. 

Worry and fear faded in the comfort of the water. He felt his muscles finally relax and he never realized how tense and sore he was until it was relieved. Although he healed in the cyropod, his back still ached from the impact of the explosion and his head still felt foggy at times. He figured those were long term effects and would only heal with time. His tail and fins felt stiff and despite his attempts to shift around and stretch in the limited space of the tub, he had a feeling he would be feeling sore for a long time to come. He was already dreading his transformation back into his land form but this brief reprieve was better than not changing at all. 

He stared at his aquamarine scales and lingered on the constant question that gnawed upon his mind: _would my friends accept me as I am?_ He was terrified to know the answer to that question and even if his friends did accept him, the more dire question was whether or not he and his family would still be safe despite the secret becoming known. 

He closed his eyes and tried to focus on breathing in and out, imagining himself in the warm waters and soft sands of the Caribbean he called home.


	2. The Depths

He tried to control his rapidly beating heart, taking deep breaths as he slowly sunk to the bottom of the ocean. 

Lance and Hunk left the wormhole and landed on a planet and were now submerged underwater in the dark, both of their Lions down and out of power as they continued to sink. 

Lance could hear sounds on the other end of the comms. “Hunk, you okay? Hunk?”

“I'm fine,” he responded weakly.

“You just threw up, didn't you?”

“Well yeah! You would too if you got sucked out of a wormhole at light speed, then crash-landed on an ice planet and ended up underwater!”

“That  _ is _ what happened to me!”

“Oh, right.”

Lance groaned. He certainly felt like throwing up at this rate. There was a lot of spinning and crashing as they fell out of the wormhole. He pressed some buttons on his panels to see if he could get power back up and running. “My main system is down. The crash must have screwed it up. Does yours work?”

“I'm on reserve power. My lion's pretty much  _ dead in the water.” _

Lance groaned even louder. He could  _ hear _ Hunk’s smug smirk. “This situation's bad enough, Hunk. Don't make it worse with puns.”

“I'm just shocked we hit a planet! I thought Pidge said space was ninety percent empty.”

“Well, apparently, Pidge's science is wrong.”

“We need to contact the others and get back to the group immediately. Hello, anyone? This is Hunk and Lance of the Yellow and Blue Lions.”

_ “They know the color of our Lions!” _

“Oh, right! Okay, yeah. I always forget that. My bad.”

“We gotta check for damage and get these lions running.” Their Lions finally landed on the bottom of the sea floor and Lance fiddled with the controls as Hunk said he copied. Suddenly Blue had power again without him having to delve too much into troubleshooting. “Oh, good. The Blue Lion's coming back online now. Welcome back, beautiful.”

The headlights (or eyelights?) of Blue turned on so he could see in the darkness and Lance had to do a double take, blinking with wide eyes as he saw an  _ extremely  _ familiar shape move within the water.

“Uhh Hunk? Did - did you just see something swim by?”

“What?” he asked, the worry starting to sound through his voice. “No?!” 

He furrowed his brows and moved his Lion’s head a bit and saw the shape again, playfully evading his sight as it swam away. “No way! This is going to sound crazy, but I think I just saw a mermaid.”

_ “Oh, boy _ . Okay, how hard did you bang your head when we hit the planet?”

“Dude, I'm serious!” He gasped as she swam again through the light. “Look! There it is again!” He moved Blue around to keep the headlights on the mermaid as she darted around. “Hey, come here! Where you going? Hey, slow down!”

She looked quite different from his kind - and reasonably so, he wasn’t expecting alien mermaids to look exactly the same - without scales and rather smooth skin similar to a seal or dolphin. Though humanoid in structure for the upper half, she was far more sea creature than anything resembling a human. 

“Lance, knock it off. We have to stay focused and get to the others... you're outside of your Lion. Great.”

“I know we have to find the others. I'm just saying maybe this thing can help. Also, it's a mermaid. A  _ mermaid!” _ He wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to see more people similar to him, and luckily Hunk was under the impression he had a fascination with mermaids… which wasn’t exactly a lie. “Come on, let's find it!”

“No! No way. Nope,  _ not _ going out there.”

“Okay, you stay here, by  _ yourself _ , in the  _ dark _ , all alone in a lion that's out of commission.”

Hunk rushed out of his Lion before Lance could even finish his sentence, and then grabbed him by the shoulders, his expression terrified. “Don't leave me!!!”

Lance turned on the flashlight on the wrist guard of his armor, searching for the mermaid in the darkness. Even though he had better vision underwater than humans he still had a difficult time seeing in the dark. It was strange being underwater with his armor on - despite his senses enhancing he wished he could be in direct contact with the water even though it was freezing. “Come on!” Lance beckoned as he made his way through the water after spotting the mermaid.

“I can't believe this! We're really chasing a mermaid,” Hunk said as they followed after her.

When she turned quickly away, Lance and Hunk paused. “Hey, wait wait wait! We're friendly!” Both of them then noticed the massive settlement down below, a glimmering city in the depths of the ocean. Before either of them could really take it in, the mermaid snuck up behind them and they screamed when she greeted them.

“Hello. Welcome to my village. Here, all are safe and warm.” She closed her black eyes and smiled. She was an interesting array of pinks and yellows with long rosey hair. “I am Florona. The almighty Queen Luxia, keeper of our land, would love to meet with you.”

Lance felt slightly uneasy despite meeting a species similar to his own. “Wait. How did your queen know we were here?”

“Queen Luxia knows all,” she replied simply. 

Everything seemed fine. The food was delicious, the mermaids were gorgeous, and Lance was having the time of his life. Part of him contemplated popping off his leg armor and changing right in front of Hunk and letting him finally know the truth, because it somehow seemed easier to do when they were already surrounded by mermaids. 

And then there was an awful smell in his head air bubble.

“Wait, where am I?” Everything was dark but he could tell something was suctioned to his face. “Why am I blindfolded? Is this a game? I hate games!”

The offending starfish was pulled off his face and he was glad he wasn’t human otherwise that might have hurt more. He was surrounded by three other mers, all with strange looking heads.

“It's okay,” one of them said, “You were mind-swished, but now we want to-”

“Kill me? Think again!” He darted away from them but his wrists were bound behind his back and he was in a complex cave system with tunnels and dead ends. It was hard to swim like this and he had no idea where he was going. When they eventually cornered him in a room full of giant jellyfish he cowered, “Don't hurt me!”

“Please, we are not here to hurt you. We brought you here to ask for your help. I am Plaxum,” the one who pulled the starfish off his face said.

“Blumfump,” said the male.

“Swirn,” said another female.

“Are you saying names, or is this some kind of weird spell you're putting on me?” Lance asked.

“We believe you are our savior,” Plaxum said, her voice earnest.

“Wait, you guys think I'm your savior?” He thought that was oddly ironic and wondered if the mers somehow knew he was also one. “What do you want with me?”

“The queen is mind-swishing everyone, controlling their thoughts.”

“We believe you can stop her,” Blumfump added.

“Wait. Wait a minute. Okay. You're trying to tell me the queen is brainwashing people? But she's so safe and warm,” he argued, the words already feeling weird after he voiced them.

Swirn made a groaning sigh. “What do you remember from yesterday?”

“I remember we crashed, saw the mermaids and the village, then we had dinner, and then, uh we, uh…”

“You can't remember because you were under her control.”

“Our theory is,” Blumfump began, pulling out shoddy diagrams to better explain, “the queen controls minds by using her voice to strike certain head switches in your ear pan.”

“And her magnetic stare locks on to your eye-to-brain pathway plug,” Plaxum said, pointing to another drawing.

“Plus,” Swirn added, “her mind-control sonar is always broadcasting through the waters. Bong! Bong! Bong!” She pulsed her hands in time to the sound for dramatic effect.

“And She trains her people to use hypnotic movements to lull you under her control,” Plaxum said.

“I do remember a dancer,” Lance remarked with a frown.

“Good, because I haven't finished my picture for that one,” Blumfump said. “But you see, she was infecting your brain!”

“Holy crow! I had a mind-controlling brain infection!”

“Sit,” Plaxum commanded, pushing on his shoulder to get him to sit on a giant clam.

“The entire village is under the queen's mind control,” Blumfump continued. “The only reason we aren't is because we wear these jellyfish that hide our brains from her powers. It's like we have no brains whatsoever. You can't control what doesn't exist.”

“Right. Of course,” Lance dully agreed as Plaxum started measuring his head with a strand of seaweed.

“Our heads are completely empty!”

“Yeah, I get it.”

Swirn explained the situation further. “Many years ago, the queen froze over the surface by blocking the thermal vents. She forced everyone to the depths, where she began to brainwash them. They became her prisoners.”

“What size?” Plaxum asked.

“Eight and seven-eighths aquameters.”

“But what's the point?” Lance asked. “Why mind-control the mermaids?”

“To kill them!!” Blumfump exclaimed.

“Really?”

“Well, we don't know that for sure, but hundreds of mermaids have disappeared and never come back.”

“We've tried to take out the queen, but failed several times,” Swirn said. “And every attempt depletes our numbers. Now, there are only three of us left. Without you, there is no hope.”

“Found one!” Plaxum said as she grabbed a properly sized jellyfish.

“What do you want from me?” Lance asked, watching them idly.

“We saw the mer-cat you came in,” Blumfump said. “We think it can stand up against the queen and her forces. But first, you'll need one of these.”

“Now, they sting pretty bad and don't smell great,” Plaxum said.

“If my theory is correct, the smelliest ones block the most mind-control rays,” Blumfump added.

“Are you a scientist?” Lance asked. 

“No.”

“Also, they can sometimes make your face swell, and you might experience hearing loss,” Plaxum added for an even less desirable effect.

“Would you just put it on already?” Lance griped. He kind of wished Pidge could be here to disprove the mers’ strange science. If only he paid more attention to things his grandmother said he might know if a jellyfish on his head would hurt him or not. He was glad they found him and not Hunk, because he was pretty certain it would cause a lot more damage to a human. Plaxum plopped the jellyfish on top of his head and he hissed at the stinging sensation. “It burns!” 

“That means it's working!”

Lance sighed, wondering if this would somehow cause him to involuntarily shift. He got himself into a complicated mess and he wasn’t sure how it would turn out so he tried to mentally prepare for all the worst-case scenarios if he did end up transforming. 

“So, what's the plan?”

* * *

“Wow, Lance got to be on a planet full of mermaids,” Pidge remarked. “Isn’t that like his dream come true?”

Lance blew a raspberry at her, peeved that even she knew about his cover-up-not-so-cover-up fantasy of meeting a mermaid. “I didn’t find the future Mrs. Blue Lion, so not quite.” He was only partially joking but none of them needed to know that.

“Okay but how did you build the signal?” Hunk asked, excited to talk engineering with Pidge.

She instantly lit up. “I landed in some sort of trash nebula and there were parts left over from a satellite. So I thought of converting the Green Lion’s energy into radio waves to broadcast a signal-”

Lance eventually left as the two prattled on about things he didn’t fully understand. Normally he enjoyed listening to their science talk and asking the occasional question, but he wasn’t feeling it after such an exhausting fight against Zarkon followed by his and Hunk’s time on the mermaid planet. Shiro was in a cyropod healing from a severe injury he had to cauterize with his own hand and that was causing him to worry as well. At least they were all back on the castleship again, and they would all be okay. 

He had a lot to think about that night when he went to bed. They encountered  _ literal _ mermaids and Hunk and Pidge seemed fine when they saw them. Everyone on the team didn’t seem bothered by any of the alien species they encountered, except for maybe Allura’s aversion to the Galra… but Lance’s race didn’t destroy hers so he didn’t have too much to worry about there. He had a feeling Allura and Coran wouldn’t bat an eye at his species reveal but it was different for his human friends from Earth.

Hunk especially.

He knew his best friend was an absolute sweetheart and softie, but Hunk also had quite a temper that was rarely seen. Lance constantly worried that Hunk would be furious with him for keeping something so important from him for several years, that he would feel betrayed he couldn’t trust him to keep his secret. In truth, Lance figured he would feel the same way if he suddenly learned Hunk was a completely different species this whole time.

And then there was the dark truth…

Would they all be scared of him once they learned  _ everything? _

He tossed and turned in his bed all night, debating whether he should sneak to the bathtub to soak and transform. Despite all the time he spent underwater on the mer planet, his suit's underarmor was thick so he didn’t actually come in contact with any water during their stay. It had been some time since his last secretive bath and his legs were starting to itch.

He let out a long sigh, pulled himself out of bed, grabbed a towel, and made his way to the bathrooms. The castle was quiet, only the lower blue lights along the floors on at this time of night. He turned on the bathroom lights once he entered into one of the rooms with a tub and began filling it with his usual preference of room temperature water.

He stripped and stepped on in, laying down into the water and letting his natural form take hold. He realized having legs all the time was absolutely  _ exhausting _ . He needed to shift more. What he really needed was to spend a solid twenty-four hours or more in this form but there was no way that was going to happen when he could barely afford secret one hour sessions in the dead of night. If he continued at this rate he would probably pass out from exhaustion and transform in front of the other Paladins at the most inopportune moment. He wasn’t used to being on legs for so long all the time. 

Just as he was starting to relax in the water, the doors to his room opened and he shrieked.

No one was there and the doors closed a second later. 

_ Quiznack this castle is haunted, _ he thought, letting out a deep sigh in the water, creating a bunch of air bubbles. He stretched his tail a bit and then shrieked again when the Altean mice climbed up onto the edge of the tub. 

Lance groaned. “You guys nearly gave me a heart attack. Twice!” 

He stared at them and they stared at him in turn with their bright beady eyes and he could have sworn they all looked completely dumbfounded. He realized they were all staring not at his face, but his tail. It took a moment for the pieces to click into place in his mind, but he realized that Allura might as well have walked in on him like this.

He moved quickly, wrapping the end of his tail around the mice as he leaned up against the edge of the tub with hands planted on either side of them, trapping them as he stared them down with lowered brows.

“You  _ can’t _ tell Allura. I realize now you’re the ones who ratted to her that Pidge is a girl - heh,  _ ratted.  _ Ok, sorry that was insensitive I know you’re mice.” He looked at each of the differently colored rodents to plead with them to understand. “She can’t know. No one can know…”

The smallest blue one squeaked happily at him and the others chittered in agreement. 

Lance couldn’t speak or understand mouse by any means, but he had a better time understanding sea life and he hoped that connection translated to the alien rodents in deciphering their response as affirmative. He slumped back down and lowered his tail into the water. 

“I really should learn your guys’ names.” He pressed his lips into a thin line, trying to remember the names Allura mentioned at some point. They all sounded the same so he would need more clarification the next time he saw her.

They all moved down into the water and paddled over to him, but he laughed and lifted his arms out for them to crawl upon. Two of them were incredibly interested in the scales on his forearms, sniffing them and tickling him with their whiskers where they brushed up against his skin. Another one continued swimming around in the water, clearly enjoying himself. The small blue one moved up his arm and inspected him by poking her little paws at the gills at his neck.

“Geh! No, stop that!” He nudged a finger at the mouse and she only squeaked mischievously. Though harmless, the mice were more interested in examining him than anything else. “I guess this is the price I pay for you keeping my secret, huh?”

Eventually he learned that the mice loved sitting on his tail fins as he gently flung them up and down in the tub like a water trampoline. As odd as it was, spending time playing with the mice and voicing his worries to them eased the stress in his shoulders. Even though they were mice it felt good to tell  _ someone _ what he was. He couldn’t even tell fellow - though alien - mermaids what he was, even when Hunk wasn’t around. He knew keeping it secret would only last for so long out in space and the longer he waited, the more painful the reveal would be to his close friends.

“Do you guys think I can tell my team?”

The pink mouse squeaked at him with excited movements of her forepaws and the little blue one added something afterward as well. He had no idea what they meant by that but it seemed positive to him. 

“Maybe one day, huh?” 

The big yellow one let out a squeaky wheeze and he laughed. 

“Yeah. Maybe one day.” 

The fight against Zarkon was stressful and everyone was trying their hardest, even risking their lives. Lance knew now would be an inopportune time to tell his teammates that he was a different species and needed to be himself more often to function properly. Taking in a deep breath, he accepted that he would have to fight through the exhaustion until they saved the galaxy from Zarkon’s reign, that his inevitable reveal would have to happen once there was peace.

But for now, it was time to split his lower self in half, crawl back into bed and try to get some sleep before whatever battle they would fight tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always super appreciated! <3 Let me know what you think!


	3. The Eye of the Storm

The next battle came too soon.

And the next.

And the next.

Fighting a robeast followed by liberating the Olkari from galra forces followed by narrowly escaping Zarkon’s entire fleet had everyone drained of energy. Lance hadn’t shifted in a  _ while _ and his exhaustion wasn’t helping his urge to change forms. He feared he would spontaneously transform in front of the team as they were trying to evade via wormhole, but as they barely made it to some scattered icebergs several galaxies away he felt his shoulders relax. Coran claimed it would take a quintant to fix the teladuv and Shiro suggested they all get some rest for now. It was only a matter of time before Zarkon showed up again and they needed to be prepared. 

Coran had a weird altean illness called the slipperies and for once Lance thought his struggles were easy. He couldn't imagine dripping in sweat - he was already far more slippery than humans. He idly wondered what kinds of weird illnesses his kind could get later in life but he didn't have much brain power to dwell on the thought.

The Castle had a pool… maybe he could rest there and possibly transform. It was the perfect time considering everyone would be taking naps in their rooms after such exhausting events -

And then the elevator door was held right before it was about to close and Keith entered wearing swim trunks and a towel on his head.

“What the heck do you think you’re doing?” There wasn’t much bite to his voice because he was so quiznacking tired. 

“Allura said there’s a pool," Keith answered tiredly. "I’m gonna go check it out. What do you think you’re doing?”

Lance sighed heavily.  _ So much for shifting _ . “Same thing.”

After a moment of riding in silence, Keith spoke up. “Look, you stay on one side of the pool and I’ll stay on the other, and we’ll be far, far away from each other. VERY. Far. Away.” Before Lance could respond the elevator stopped and they were shrouded in darkness. “Huh?”

“Uhhh...?” 

Both of them let out heavy sighs.  _ So much for enjoying some peace and quiet at the pool. _

Eventually the two of them figured out how to get out of the elevator and work their way up the shaft where it was lit. Keith suggested they work together to move up the elevator shaft and Lance was too tired to remember he weighed a ton. He was no expert on physics, but either the teamwork exercise where they climbed up back to back distributed their weight evenly, or Keith didn’t notice he had a much heavier mass. 

“It’s right,  _ then _ left. You’re off,” Keith complained. 

_ “You’re _ off!” Lance retorted. “And shoving too hard!” He pushed his feet against the wall to shove Keith further.

“You’re not shoving hard enough!” Keith did the same to shove him back, but the fire was short lived as they both returned to the middle ground, shoulders hunched. 

“I should be at the pool right now!” Lance moaned.   


“Would you stop whining?” Keith started but then made a sound when he saw something. “Look!” 

Lance turned his head over his shoulder to see the hatch in the wall. They silently agreed to work towards it and Lance made sure that he was the one who pushed Keith’s weight further so he could kick the hatch in. They slid down the shoot and fell a considerable distance, screaming the entire way. Lance knew he would have awful bruises the next morning from such a rough landing, practically face planting on the cold hard floor. He groaned as he pulled himself up to see the pool…

The pool was on the  _ ceiling. _

“What the heck?!”

“Stupid altean pools,” Keith scoffed with crossed arms.

They didn’t have long to puzzle over the strange design of having the water on the ceiling. The Castle began to shake violently and the water sloshed down (or up?) towards them, grabbing Lance and Keith for a moment before spitting them back out onto the floor.  _ There’s some more bruises I’ll have _ , Lance lamented as he groaned in pain. 

“Zarkon must be back,” Keith said as they began running towards the bridge.

Lance choked on his words, gasping for air as he realized something was wrong. He coughed to cover himself. “So soon?” he wheezed, clasping a hand to his neck to confirm his fears: his gills had appeared. Getting in contact with the water must have been enough to trigger him to shift, even if only partially. He was now grateful the pool was on the ceiling and the galra interrupted otherwise Lance might have gone in the water and changed right in front of Keith unwillingly. The last thing he wanted was for  _ Keith _ of all people to know his secret. 

Running was hard when his legs were starting to feel like tentacles and the Castle kept shaking from the onslaught of galra fire, not to mention his feet were still slick from the pool and his footing was slipperier than usual. Once Allura got the particle barrier up the shaking was less intense but he was practically at his seat on the bridge by that time. He kept his towel around his neck and hoped no one would notice his biological mishap. 

“They found us again?” He sat down and pulled up his control panels. “How is that possible? _ Is _ that possible?  _ That doesn’t seem possible!” _ He could breathe fine with his gills intact though if he couldn’t get his hyperventilating under control it could pose a problem.

“Right now we must figure out a way to get out of here,” Allura said.

“Or we could stay and fight - now’s our chance,” Keith countered. “Form Voltron! Enough running!”

_ No no no no no there’s no way we’re staying and fighting _ , Lance thought. Not in his current condition when he felt like his legs would give out at any moment.

“It’s too dangerous!” 

“Allura’s right,” Shiro said and Lance felt his heart rate lower in the slightest. “We can’t take on Zarkon and his entire fleet. Remember what happened at Zarkon’s command center; we wouldn’t have escaped if the Blade of Marmora didn’t shut down the shield.”

Luckily they were able to make another small jump with the teladuv to avoid the fleet and hid in the eye of a space storm per Pidge’s suggestion, but it wasn’t long before Zarkon found them again. Despite Shiro’s terrifying idea to form Voltron and go out into the storm to divert the fleet, he was relieved at the idea of getting into his Lion and covering his neck with his paladin armor. He rushed to his hanger and suited up, distraught to see that some of his teal scales appeared on his thighs.  _ Come on, hold on just a little longer _ , he encouraged his aching body.  _ We just have to get away from Zarkon and then alone time in the tub will be all mine.  _ He did his best to ignore the voice at the back of his head that told him Zarkon would keep finding them and he wouldn’t get a chance to rest for a long while.

They diverted the fleet and pulled Zarkon away from the eye, nearly losing the Black Lion to his connection in the process. Allura left the eye and freed them from Zarkon’s grasp, allowing them to disband and return to the Castle. If they were going to make another teladuv jump it would require them to physically hold Hunk’s terribly baked cookies. Lance had a bad feeling about this, especially since he was in such a precarious position hanging from one of the bands of lenses with his legs. He couldn’t exactly protest to Coran that he couldn’t hold that position because his legs were having  _ issues  _ when he was obviously the most flexible on the team. 

“Okay there,” Coran said once he got everyone into the proper position in the teladuv. “Now, nobody move if you want to live.”

Unfortunately the Castle was still under enemy fire and the whole room shook.

“I think I moved! I think I moved!” Lance yelped.

“Well, then move back to where you think you were!” Coran answered nonchalantly. “Okay, now I’m going to monitor the beam from out there.” He started to skate away towards the door.

“Wait, Coran!” Hunk called. “How dangerous is this?” 

Coran’s feet squeaked to a halt and he paused. “Honestly, this is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen,  _ or heard of _ ,” his voice cracked, “but since we’re probably going to die anyway, what the heck, let’s give it a shot!” He stood to full height and saluted them. “Good luck gentlemen... and gentlelady. It’s been a pleasure,” he practically whispered the last part. He yelled right before the door to the teladuv closed shut, “Don’t touch the lasers!”

Then they were left in the darkness with nothing but the faint aqua colored lights from their armor. The end of the chamber started to light up in the same brilliant blue, and Lance felt like he was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

“We’re gonna die we’re gonna die we’re gonna diiiiiiie!!” he wailed.

“Hold tight, Lance!” Pidge encouraged tersely.

Once the beam warmed up and started shooting lasers at them Lance screamed the entire time, only stopping once it seemed to have shorted out and failed. Before he could ask, Coran came flying into the teladuv, sliding around like an olympic figure skater. 

“What’s happening?” Shiro asked as Allura continued with a countdown on the intercom. 

“No one move!” Coran said. “I’ve got to shine these stones! Good thing I’ve got a case of the slipperies!” He moved quickly, wetting the lenses as Allura continued to count down to zero.

All of them were screaming when the lasers hit. 

But somehow they survived.

“Good work team! We made it!” Allura announced far too cheerily when she opened the door. “Huh?”

They all groaned, practically fried from the jump and Lance’s legs finally gave out, causing him to fall on his head with a yelp. 

_ There was another bruise. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is fairly short but we're getting closer to the inevitable when Pidge finds out!   
> Tell me what you think! I love to hear your comments!


End file.
